The National Garden (formerly the Royal Garden) is a peaceful, green refuge of 15.5 hectares in the center of the Greek capital.
It is located directly behind the Greek Parliament building (The Old Palace) and continues to the south to the area where the Zappeion is located, across from the Panathenaiko or Kalimarmaro Olympic Stadium of the 1896 Olympic Games.
The Garden also encloses some ancient ruins, tambours and Corinthian capitals of columns, mosaics, and other features. On the south-east there are the busts of Capodistrias,the first governor of Greece and of the great Philhellene, Eynard, and on the south side of the celebrated Greek poets Dionysios Solomos , author of the Greek National Hymn, and Aristotelis Valaoritis.
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In 1878, the Danish architect Theophil Freiherr von Hansen designed the neo-classical Zappeion Hall.
It was named after Evangelos Zappas, an Epirote businessman who was instrumental in starting the Zappian Olympic Games, a precursor to the modern Olympic Games.
The Zappeion was the Olympic village for the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens and also as a venue for the fencing events. Starting in the 1920s, the area in front of the Zappeion was a major transportation hub for trams and buses.
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Today the National Garden, as it was renamed after the 1974 plebescite to abolish the monarchy, is open to the public from sunrise to sunset and provides a peaceful respite from the center city.
The main entrance is on Leoforos Amalias, the street named after the Queen who envisioned this park. You can also enter the garden from one of three other gates: the central one, on Vasilissis Sophias Avenue, another on Herodou Attikou Street and the third gate connects the National Garden with the Zappeion park area.
In the National Garden you will find: a duck pond, a small zoo, a Botanical Museum, a small cafe, and a Children's Library and playground.
